CAIRO, Ill. -- In a meeting unusual because it avoided the political bickering that has become commonplace, the Cairo City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to borrow money to settle the debt with its health insurance carrier.

City employees have been working under a cloud of losing their coverage through the Laborers' Health and Welfare Fund. The town, which is paying current premiums, owes more than $140,000 for premiums dating to 2003 and 2004.

A proposal to borrow the money has been on every council agenda since early March. The feud between Mayor Paul Farris and a group of opponents controlling four votes on the six-member council has prevented any action, even when the insurance fund threatened to cancel the city's coverage.

In a brief special meeting, the council voted to borrow $146,559 to pay the past-due premiums. The vote, which would satisfy a federal court ruling against the city, came after the insurance fund had renewed the federal lawsuit.

"I've been willing to do it all along, if it was drawn up right," said councilman Joey Thurston, who usually sides with Farris' four opponents.

Nothing was conceded to opposition council members to obtain their assent to the loan, Farris said after the meeting. Since four members of the council announced in December that they would boycott meetings, Farris has been withholding their paychecks and has dropped them from the city-paid health insurance.

The four -- Linda Jackson, Bobby Whitaker, Sandra Tarver and Elbert "Bo" Purchase --soon changed course and missed only two meetings in early January. Since returning, they have challenged Farris at almost every opportunity, including whether to borrow to pay the health insurance.

"It needed to be done, and it is hard to stand on a principle when you have to conduct business," Jackson said after the meeting. "We can only push it for so long."

Jackson, with help from advisers in the anti-Farris camp, prepared the details of the loan, bringing to the meeting a list of the funds that will bear the cost of repaying the debt. The money will be repaid from property tax revenue expected later this year.

Neither side characterized Wednesday's meeting as any kind of reconciliation. The council has been fighting Farris since he won election in April 2003.

rkeller@semissourian.com

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